Housing and the “green” Economy

It occurs to me that housing policy could help us move to a greener economy and could help achieve carbon targets. I’d propose that new housing be built from sustainable materials wherever possible. So what does this mean? I think the primary effect would be to encourage timber buildings. So long as the timber comes from sustainably farmed southern temperate or tropical softwood this would over time, sequester (capture and store) large amounts of carbon. My own house has been successfully storing tonnes of carbon for four centuries!

Why the restriction to southern temperate or tropical softwood? Largely because large areas of forest lower the albedo in regions that get snow in winter, increasing net insolation.